Accountability and Defying Extremism

Our generation shares the responsibility to challenge supremacism and extremism in America and around the world. Our responsibility is based on our nation and our leaders’ accountability in defending our inalienable human rights of equality and liberty – which demands that we reject all supremacism, including extremism. Such accountability on human rights also requires that we challenge those in denial on this threat who seek our surrender to extremism abroad and at home. Failure to defy extremism will not only cost us our freedoms – it will also cost us our identity, as those who appease and support such supremacism will seek to use our nation’s influence and power as a weapon against freedom – as we have recently seen in other nations. To effectively defy Islamic supremacism, we must use our existing consensus in equality and liberty as a tool to ensure that extremism is treated like any other supremacist ideology that would seek to threaten our freedoms. We know that outrage against supremacism is not enough; we are responsible to act to defy such supremacist ideologies that threaten our freedoms and take a public stand against them.

Did the U.S. government express outrage or anger such outrageous demands that the U.S. to negotiate with the same Taliban organization that aided and abetted Al-Qaeda in planning the 9/11 attacks on the United States? Did it walk out of such discussions? Most importantly, did America’s government vehemently say “NO”?

America’s history has taught us that there is no “going along” or “working with” “reconcilable elements” of supremacist ideologies. Supremacists are not “reconcilable” to the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. Supremacists don’t compromise on their ideology, which is based on a lie that they are inherently superior to others. We know this. We have seen, fought, and defied such supremacism in this generation’s lifetime. We know that a supremacist offer of “separate but equal” means no equality at all. We know that a supremacist offer to reign in violent activities is a false promise that they cannot and will not keep. We know that the power of supremacism is only blunted when we confront and defy its ideology. We hold the truths as self-evident that all men and women are created equal and have the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. Supremacists don’t.

Most of all, President Obama should know this lesson as well, if not more so, than others. He is the greatest beneficiary thus far in America of such defiance, such unwillingness to compromise with supremacism. Because others said “no” to supremacism, Barack Obama not only has his rightful human rights in America, but also he could fully realize the dream that “all men are created equal.”

But all of this history, knowledge, and wisdom is lost in the American government leadership’s position on extremism, an ideology that it refuses to acknowledge. Our leaders have forgotten that being accountable to human rights means saying “no” to supremacist extremisim.

Instead of “no” we hear a deafening silence from our government leaders to the greatest threat to the human rights of equality and liberty in the world. Instead of the American government expressing outrage at calls by the Pakistani government for America to negotiate with so-called “reconcilable” extremists, we have Mr. Holbrooke stating that “I am here to listen and learn.” Instead of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister’s outrageous recommendation defied, FM Qureshi praised his talks with Mr. Holbrooke as a “new beginning” in ties with the U.S., stating “this administration has a different approach and starts on a different footing, that was a very pleasant change.”

It gets worse. The Daily Telegraph reports that “Mr. Holbrooke is expected to support a new approach which will involve…. secret talks with ‘persuadable’ Taliban leaders and allies in Afghanistan.”

Supremacists know that cowards will always find an excuse as to why it is inconvenient to say “no” to supremacist ideologies. In fact, that is precisely what supremacists count on – those who are unwilling to hold them accountable for their violent ideology of hatred and lies, based on a cowardly fear to say “no” to their ideology. Every time you don’t say “no” to supremacism, its adherents interpret this as a cowardly way of saying “yes” that you will tolerate supremacism’s influence on human rights.

America’s actions in Afghanistan and Pakistan has increasingly become a swirling vortex of tactics without a strategy, without a consistently defined enemy, and without a moral stance on the extremist ideology that continues to fight us there. Our young men and women continue to be sent into battle without American military and governmental leadership’s accountability in honestly and seriously defining the enemy. The fundamental lesson that fighting supremacism requires a moral accountability in defying its ideology is lost on policy and tactical wonks who keep making the same mistakes over and over. Our soldiers can risk and sacrifice their lives, but our government and military leaders cannot gather the moral courage to say “no” to the ideology of extremism. In fact, such leaders fear to even use the very words, preferring to talk about “extremists” or resorting to the sophomoric term “bad guys.”

So when our leaders can’t say “no” to the ideology of Islamic supremacism, what should we expect from those who don’t view Islamic supremacism as an ideology that needs to be challenged?

What Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi’s comments demonstrate is precisely how little moral courage the advocates of extremism think Americans have. “Diplomats” such as Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi seek to help America retreat and surrender from a war that they believe America cannot even fight, let alone win. There is no surprise that Islamic Republic of Pakistan government officials would seek the U.S. to negotiate with such “reconcilable elements” of the extremist Taliban. As early as August 2007, former Pakistan President Musharraf called for the “mainstreaming” of the extremist Taliban.

Can we be surprised that extremists are confident in America’s near-term surrender and withdrawal from challenging Violent Extemismists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, when American government leaders can’t even name the enemy and its Islamic supremacist ideology? When we fail to be accountable for human rights, supremacists expect the surrender of those who could defend equality and liberty, not only in foreign nations, but also in their own nations.

While some would look at individual nations or groups as the source of terrorist threats, the reality is much more troubling. The reality is that stopping extremist terrorism tactics from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc., is not enough. The challenge is greater than such a tactical-based, “whack-a-mole,” reactive approach. The true challenge is to defy the ideology of extremism itself as a global threat to equality and liberty. extremism terrorism is simply a tactic of extremism adherents, and the failure to challenge the ideology itself demonstrates that that tactic is working.

Failure to recognize and defy extremism as part of our responsibility to be accountable for equality and liberty is the single worst mistake that a free nation can make. Such a failure not only will lead to a greater risk of terrorism, but also will lead to a deterioration of equality and liberty in a free nation itself.

3. The Ghost of a Extremist-Appeased Future

We can see the consequences of failing to be accountable for our responsibility in defending equality and liberty, by simply looking at the failures of another nation. What are the consequences of failing to defy extremism?

Imagine a nation whose institutional and government leaders seek to silence those challenging extremism, not only of their own citizens, but also those from foreign nations, exerting pressure to silence people from and in other nations, including America. Imagine a nation where “extremists” are those who dare to challenge extremism.

Imagine that this list… is just barely touching the surface of the extremist infiltration and appeasement of such a nation.

Perhaps you think I am referencing Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Pakistan? No doubt you think I am referencing a nation that harbors those who seek the destruction of equality and liberty? Surely this is not a nation that you think America would have a “special relationship” with — except perhaps as an adversary?

When one understands that the UK Home Office’s real agenda is to silence those who would point out their abject surrender to extremism, it is clearly no surprise that they would not want Geert Wilders to speak. It is also not surprising that other UK institutions have sought to silence Briton Douglas Murray and others; Mr. Murray, a challenger of extremism in the UK, was silenced by the London School of Economics in “the interests of public safety.”

But what you may not realize is the UK Home Office has also aggressively sought to influence debate in the United States as well. On June 24, 2008 in Washington, DC, the UK Home Office sent a representative to a George Washington University panel discussion that I was part of, regarding the definition of “jihad” to dissuade Americans from using the term “jihad” or “Islamist” when discussing extremist terrorism. In our nation’s capital, this foreign government sought to sway American debate to ignore the Islamic supremacist nature of Violent Extemism.

Two months later, I was told by a well-known American blog on counterterrorism subjects that the UK Home Office had written them in complaint of my articles regarding extremism in the UK and sought to have me silenced (an American). I was told that the representative of the UK Home Office was specifically angry about an article where I questioned why the Quilliam Foundation was publicly praising on their web site Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomaa – a known supporter of Hezbollah and extremism — while Quilliam claims to oppose “Islamism.” A few weeks before that Senators Kyl and Coburn had written then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking why U.S. government funds were supporting ISNA’s meeting with this same Ali Gomaa. Like ISNA, the UK Home Office does not need such scrutiny of the facts, and this particular American blog chose to discontinue my articles on Violent Extemism and extremism. (Four months later, the Quilliam Foundation was given 1 million pounds sterling of British taxpayer funds — and their support for Ali Gomaa remains on their public web site.)

The UK Home Office’s agenda in protecting its “covenant of security” with extremism is not going to be limited to silence Americans in this country as well, and it will doubtless continue to use its resources and influence within this country to do so. This shows the stakes in failing to defy extremism – surrender will not only undermine support for equality and liberty, surrender will also alter your relations with free nations committed to being responsible for equality and liberty. While we must continue to support the resistance movement by individuals in the UK who are still committed to equality and liberty, we must recognize that the current British Home and Foreign Offices and their supporters have abandoned all pretense of commitment to equality and liberty, preferring appeasement and infiltration by the enemy. It has gone well down the road to becoming an enemy-occupied, collaborationist, “Vichy Britain.”

This is the treacherous, sinister, perverted future that would await free people who fail to be accountable in defying extremism; those who fail to defy it will eventually become a tool of the enemy to protect your “peace” through submission. Failure to defy extremism will not only cost us our freedoms… it will also cost us our identity.

In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” there is the well-known story of Scrooge facing the “ghost of Christmas yet to come,” a grim reaper that points to Scrooge’s dishonor, disgrace, and grave. Scrooge asks “Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”

This is the question to America regarding what we must learn from the grim and sad tale of the United Kingdom’s appeasement of Islamic supremacism. The deteriorating United Kingdom serves as a cautionary example of the future that awaits us, should we fail to be responsible for equality and liberty today.

Americans can choose another path. Our destiny remains in our hands. Our ability to forge a new path of defiance against extremism and in defense of equality and liberty remains the responsibility of our generation.

4. Consensus Building and Accountability

What does such responsibility for equality and liberty mean in terms of defying extremism? Does it mean building a consensus among the American public and our leaders on the threat of Islamic supremacism? Or does it mean being accountable for actively defying extremism in public? Certainly, it means both.

But our efforts at consensus building should not overlook that America already has a fundamental consensus on equality and liberty. We have declared such a consensus that “all men are created equality” and that all human beings have the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty – as our declaration of our very identity as a nation, and as a people. This is is who and what we are. We don’t need to build this consensus; we simply need to effectively use it. This American consensus is shared by nations around the world that adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. We, not just as Americans, but as humanity, hold these truths to be self-evident. Such declarations of our human rights form the international basis for our defiance of extremism.

Where this consensus in human rights still is not effective is in understanding the supremacist nature of our challenge today. In America, we have defied those who would teach white supremacism to our children in schools, exercise white supremacism in business and public activities, seek racial segregation, or seek to promote white supremacism in our laws and government. As a nation, we have proven that our government and the mass majority of our people understand and reject such supremacism. But this commitment and consensus has not yet been effectively applied to extremism.

It is our obligation as a free people, responsible for equality and liberty, is to demand – why not?

In America, a nation dedicated to equality and liberty, the individual freedom of thought of white supremacists does not translate into a national tolerance of white supremacism and racial segregation in our schools, our places of worship, our businesses, our non-profit organizations, our public events, our laws, and our government. Our freedoms do not permit hate and supremacism to overtake our inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. We do not and will not tolerate this.

Therefore, we must also demand that our religious freedoms are not warped to translate into a national tolerance of extremism and segregation in our schools, our public places, our businesses, our non-profit organizations, our public events, our laws, and our government. We must similarly demand that extremism must not overtake our inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. We must demand an end to the tolerance of this.

Our obligation in being accountable for defying extremism demands that, as a people responsible for equality and liberty, we publicly speak out against such extremism and call for an end to its sinister influences in America and around the world. The key in consensus building against the threat of extremism lies in utilizing the consensus of freedom that we already share today to defy and condemn those who would have a different standard that allows tolerance of extremism to undermine our unity in equality and liberty.

Our accountability in defying extremism requires that we demand the same standards for extremist practices, ideology, businesses, organizations, and messages – that we would have for any other supremacist organization that seeks to undermine equality and liberty. Our accountability must also reject the conscious “ignorance” by our leaders on extremism as a convenient excuse to avoid their responsibility to defy it. Ignorance is not an excuse. Such leaders understand that we are a nation committed to equality and liberty. They simply need to act consistently on the principles set down and the profiles of courage by our founding fathers, human rights leaders, and past presidents. It is time once again for the American public and our leaders to truly show the courage of our convictions as a nation responsible for equality and liberty.

5. The Wisdom to be Responsible for Equality And Liberty

If anyone in America should understand the need to be responsible for equality and liberty, it should be President Obama. If America had failed to maintain its steadfastness in defying white supremacism then, like it is caving on extremism now, Barack Obama not only would not be President today, we would still be fighting for his basic inalienable human rights of equality and liberty.

We fought that war because we believed then, as we must continue to believe now, that “all men are created equal” and because we view the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty as self-evident truths. Such a responsibility for equality and liberty was not just the responsibility of our founding fathers or of generations past. It is the responsibility that declares our identity as Americans and what America is. We must not forget the wisdom learned by the sacrifices of so many before us. We must not let the pain and frustration of our current times blind us to the wisdom of what we have learned in the past, and how such lessons can rescue equality and liberty today.

After Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Bobbie Kennedy told an audience: “My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: ‘Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.’”

We have learned that wisdom from America’s own long, painful, bloody history in facing down supremacism that there is no “going along” with supremacists until someday they decide to “reform” on their own. That day will never come by wishful thinking. That day will never come if we don’t take a moral stand on the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty. It took America over 100 years of pain and suffering to learn that lesson. Going along, looking the other way, and wishing things were different will never make a difference.

We have the wisdom and the history to know that silence will never change supremacism.

But this knowledge is not enough. It is not enough to merely be outraged. It is not enough to merely be disgusted. It is not enough to merely be frustrated. It is not enough to merely write and speak to those who share our concern about supremacism.

Wisdom and our history demands that we act to defy supremacism, as we did in the past, and as we will in the future. There are many ways to act, to inform, to educate, to lobby our legislators, to contact our federal government on issues, and share information among ourselves. Such slow and steady working in education and consensus-building is admirable hard work of devoted defenders of liberty.

But what will it take to awaken our national shame to those who would appease extremism?

The wisdom to be responsible for equality and liberty also demands our public defiance to those would appease and support extremism. We must stand and we must march.

We will never march alone. Even if one of us were to be the sole protestor of our defiance to extremism, we will be joined by the spirit of our founding fathers and of all those who have bravely stood defiantly against supremacism and in defense of equality and liberty. We stand together, yesterday, now, and tomorrow, united against extremism, and united in our responsibility for equality and liberty.

The dawn of our movement in public defiance of Islamic supremacism is on the horizon. It is time for us to stand together to own that responsibility and destiny.

We will Fear No Evil. We will Defy It.

[Postscript - see also Sources documents for references, additional reading, and background information.]